Distributor Data: General Merchandise

McLane shipments of motor oil fell nearly 7% by dollars in 2013, with accessories up more than 7%. In other general-merchandise items, battery shipments dropped nearly 17%.

Automotive Products

Segment

Avg. shipments per store per week (in dollars)

Avg. shipments per store per week (dollar growth)

PCYA

Motor oil

$34.68

-$2.46

-6.6%

Accessories

$13.28

$0.89

7.2%

Additives

$12.52

-$0.14

-1.1%

Antifreeze

$10.72

$0.89

9.0%

Window solvent

$6.82

$1.60

30.7%

Transmission

$2.60

-$0.50

-16.2%

Total automotive products

$80.63

$0.29

0.4%

Other Products

Batteries

$9.92

-$1.98

-16.6%

Seasonal

$8.41

$0.01

0.1%

Sunglasses

$3.84

-$0.82

-17.7%

Wearing

$3.23

$0.27

9.1%

School/office supplies

$1.84

-$0.17

-8.5%

Telecommunications hardware

$1.51

-$3.89

-72.0%

Gaming/novelty

$0.91

$0.03

3.8%

Hardware/tools/electrical

$0.73

-$0.27

-27.2%

Film/photo

$0.48

-$0.17

-26.2%

Floral

$0.08

-$0.11

-59.6%

Other

$5.66

$3.37

147.1%

Source: McLane Co.

Battery Trends

C-store sales, 52 weeks ending Dec. 29, 2013

C-store sales of batteries continued to decline in 2013, falling 9% in dollars and nearly 15% in units, according to IRI. Duracell Coppertop alkaline batteries gained nearly 5% of dollar share last year.

Batteries by Brand

Brand

C-store sales ($ millions)

PCYA

Unit sales (millions)

PCYA

Duracell Coppertop

$48.7

3.4%

9.4

1.1%

Energizer Max

$40.9

-14.6%

7.8

-17.1%

Private label

$8.4

13.7%

1.8

2.6%

Rayovac

$5.5

-21.2%

2.4

-40.9%

Sony

$5.3

-5.2%

1.4

-8.0%

Total (including brands not shown)

$125.1

-9.0%

27.4

-14.7%

Source: IRI

Distributor Data: Batteries by UPC

Calendar year 2013

The top-shipped battery UPC from McLane in 2013 was the four-count Duracell AA alkaline.

1. Duracell Alkaline AA (4-count)

2. Energizer AA (4-count)

3. Duracell AAA (4-count)

4. Energizer AAA (4-count)

5. Duracell Alkaline 9V

Source: McLane Co.

Cross-Category Opportunity

In a ranking of the top single-item transactions in a c-store, the list was dominated by general merchandise, showing an untapped opportunity for adjacencies. According to recent research by Management Science Associates that examined point-of-sale data at three midsize c-store chains, here are the top 10 categories purchased in a single-item transaction: